


lost in the abyss, this metropolis

by raincheck (seungmin)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Minor Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Lee Taeil, Pining, REALLY MINOR, Slow Burn, kind of???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 10:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15839439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seungmin/pseuds/raincheck
Summary: It's hard enough to navigate being bitten by a radioactive spider without adding the tricky business of love into the mix. Unfortunately, Jeno's not that lucky.





	lost in the abyss, this metropolis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spearbe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spearbe/gifts).



> title: waiting for superman by daughtry
> 
> i know u said u were gonna cry the day u left for france but hey maybe u can read this instead?? ( + yes this is the new fic i was working on lol) [click](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QoHrMPaLUs)—me @ u for the past five years—im gonna miss u lots but i also know that you're going to go out and do amazing things in hon hon baguette land!!! love always <3  
>   
> i wrote this in a day + it's unedited pls go easy on me

Jeno has a scar that trails lazily up his left arm, looping around to rest at the junction of his shoulder and collar bone. He’d miscalculated once when he was twelve and fell down eighteen stories into the compost bin behind his favorite Chinese takeout place. Doyoung hadn’t been very pleased.

Right now, Jeno stands to gain a lot more than just a scar if—

“If you don’t stop staring,” Renjun hisses, voice crackling sharply through the headset, “tomorrow’s headlines are going to read _‘LOCAL SUPERHERO MAY NOT HAVE EIGHT LEGS LIKE HIS ARACHNID COUNTERPART, BUT HE’LL PROBABLY START THINKING ABOUT IT WHEN HE SHREDS HIS TWO EXISTING ONES ON CITY HALL.’_ ”

Jisung snorts.“That’s still a better headline than the one that was like, _‘DOES SPIDERMAN HAVE A FIDGET SPINNER KINK? LET’S DISCUSS.’_ ” 

“Why are you going through my comm?” Jeno frowns. “Shouldn’t you be bothering your assigned superhero?”

“Doyoung wants me to tell you that Saturday brunch for this week is getting moved to one in the afternoon,” Jisung says, chomping loudly on a granola bar. "Chenle's off the hook for today."

“No personal info over the comms,” Renjun mutters. 

“Okay, whatever.” With one final crunch, Jisung disappears from his headset.

Jeno pauses from his spot on the balcony, watching as the banner stretched across the lawn flutters in the breeze. Same old, same old. The mayor stands to the side, wringing his empty hands desperately. The guy who keeps terrorizing the city key ceremonies has managed to make off with the key in five minutes flat. That’s a new record. Someone needs to fire the security guards.

Jeno stretches an arm out and rolls his wrist. One well-aimed web and Key Guy is going down, in three, two—

“Spiderman! Over here!”

Eh. Key Guy can wait.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Renjun hisses, “Jeno, you still have to go after him. He’s literally waving the key in the air. Are you really going to lose your dignity like this?”

“Hi,” Jeno gets out, breathless as he stares down.

“Hey,” Jaemin winks and raises his camera. “I’m loving the costume, really. The spandex is doing you wonders. But don’t you ever get tired of that pesky mask?”

“Uh-huh,” Jeno tuts, wagging his finger reprovingly. “You know I can’t do that.”

“Yeah,” Jaemin sighs. “Doesn’t hurt to try though, right?”

“Mhmm,” Jeno mumbles. Renjun’s still screeching at him through the headset. He scrambles for something to say. “Pink looks good on you.”

“Really? Thanks.” Jaemin flashes him a million-dollar smile. He reaches a hand up to fluff his hair subconsciously. “It’s not too much, right? I wasn’t going to go for something this bright but I thought I needed a change.”

“No no,” Jeno stutters, hands waving frantically. “It looks good. Like, really good.”

“Key Guy has stopped running and is coming back your way. He’s not happy that you’re not chasing after him. Neither,” Renjun grunts, “am I.”

“Listen,” Jeno starts apologetically, “I gotta go.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jaemin waves him off. “Go back to saving the city or whatever.”

“My career’s just _whatever_ to you?” 

Jaemin grins. “Don’t you know? I’m only covering you for the paper because no one else wanted the job. Don’t take it too personally. Superheroes just aren’t very in these days.”

Jeno scrunches his nose. “Looks like the standards have gotten higher.”

“They really have,” Jaemin agrees, then points behind him. “But criminals have it worse. You’re not the only one that’s suffering.” 

Jeno turns around to see Key Guy blowing a raspberry at him.

“Go get ‘em tiger!” Jaemin grins and slaps him on the back. 

A few things happen then: Jeno chokes, Renjun snickers, Jeno’s arm shakes, then shoots. Key Guy raises an unimpressed eyebrow when the web lands at his feet.

Oops. 

 

 

Usually, superheroes are born with their powers.

(“I’m just wicked fast.” Chenle pops his gum noisily at their cafeteria table. “Didn’t really realize something was up until people kept accusing me of winning all my track meets unfairly. Like, sorry you guys don’t have twenty-one trophies. Someone’s gotta take one for the team to make me look cool.”)

Jeno’s a little bit of an anomaly.

(“Look!” Jaemin shakes the newspaper twice before it unfolds, pushing Jeno’s orange juice out of the way. “New unidentified supervillain burns down the city’s courthouse.”

Jeno reaches over Jaemin’s head for his orange juice, wedging Jaemin under his armpit. “That’s cool. I wanna set stuff on fire too.”

“No setting anything on fire,” Jeno’s mom chides, clearing their plates away from the breakfast table. “Shouldn’t you two be heading to school anyway?”

Jeno gasps, eyes wide. “We’re gonna be late for the first day! Third grade is a big deal.”

“Still,” Jaemin struggles with his backpack straps. “Do you really wanna set stuff on fire when you could be flying? Or reading minds?”

Jeno kicks at a rock near their bus stop. “I don’t know. I never really thought about it.”)

The day he turns sixteen, his mom sends him off to his school retreat with a cool glow-in-the-dark watch that he loses on their second night of camping. 

(“Jaemin,” he hisses, “wake up.”

Jaemin responds by smacking him in the face. Admittedly, he should’ve seen that one coming.

“I lost my watch.” Jeno shakes his flashlight desperately and rolls on top of Jaemin. “Get out of your sleeping bag and help me look for it.”

The tent unzips with ease. They step out cautiously, the woods shrouded in a muted glow. Not single star is in the sky. It’s hard to see more than three feet in front of him.

“Hurry up,” Jaemin mutters, hugging himself and shuddering. “We’re gonna get caught.”

Jeno frowns, then crouches down to flip over a log. “I swear I had it at the campfire. I was sitting here, so it has to be near—ow!” He slaps at his leg and spins around to face Jaemin. “What the fuck was that for?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Jaemin says. He’s on the other side of the clearing. Jeno has to squint to see him.

“Then what was that?” Jeno brings his flashlight down to his leg, but aside from a small red mark, there’s nothing else there.

“Can we go back already?” Jaemin’s teeth chatter as he speaks. “We can try to find your watch in the morning.”

Jeno grumbles. “Fine.”)

The only gift Jeno has left from his sixteenth birthday is a pair of spinnerets and an application form to the Supers Training Academy.

 

 

Jeno glances down at the curb, shrugs, and sits down. Doyoung can yell at him about the ever-growing cost of his dry-cleaning bills some other time. “You’re the worst,” he mutters to Renjun. Jaemin’s long gone by now.

“This is my only source of entertainment for the day,” Renjun says. He actually sounds kind of sad. Jeno’s impressed. “Humor me.”

“I’ll pass.” Jeno pretends to frown at Key Guy struggling against the webs he’s wrapped in. “Find something better to do.”

“I would if I could,” Renjun grumbles. On his side of the line, scuffling ensues. Jisung shouts once, then goes silent. “This is why Chenle thinks you’re not funny.”

“Chenle’s literally twelve. What the hell does he know?”

Renjun hums. “That if you like your best friend you should tell him?”

“I’m turning you off.”

“Woah! No need to get prickly.” He can literally hear the grin in Renjun’s voice. “I could request a transfer right now, and then you’d probably get stuck with Jisung as your handler.”

Jeno scowls. “Can you stop calling yourself a handler? It makes me sound like I’m some kind of untamed beast.” He picks at a piece of lint on his tights. “I’m not an untamed beast.”

“With that hair?”

Jeno reaches up and clicks the off button. Serves him right.

 

 

“Why were you out so late last night?”

Jeno rolls over and blinks blearily. Donghyuck stands at the foot of his bed, looking surprisingly intimidating until Jeno realizes that the lighting makes Donghyuck appear a lot taller than usual.

“I was doing stuff.” Jeno buries his face into his pillow. “Don’t you have better things to do than question me?”

Donghyuck narrows his eyes, unfazed. “Superhero stuff?”

Jeno chucks the pillow at him in response.

“Oh my god, chill.” Donghyuck coughs and the pillow bounces off of him harmlessly. “No one can hear us right now.”

“You never know!”

Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “The walls aren’t _that_ thin.”

“I’m not risking it.” Jeno sits up and stretches before finally getting out of bed. 

“I don’t get why you’re so terrified of other people knowing you’re Spiderman anyway,” Donghyuck says, trailing him to the bathroom. When Jeno glances pointedly at him, and then at the door, Donghyuck perches himself by the counter and frowns. “Didn’t you say you had a friend who told everyone about his powers?”

“That’s Chenle.” Jeno spits mouthwash into the sink. “He’s different.”

“But a lot of people know already, right?” Donghyuck ticks them off on his fingers. “Me, Mark, Doyoung, all your superhero friends.” He glances up at Jeno. “So it wouldn’t make a difference if you told other people too.”

“Yeah it would.” Jeno makes a face as he gags on his toothbrush. “I can’t just tell anybody.”

“Yeah,” Donghyuck says. “But you could tell Jaemin.”

Jeno groans and exits the bathroom. “We’re not talking about this again.”

“Yes we are!” Donghyuck skips to catch up and slings an arm around him. “I just don’t get why you’re so against Jaemin knowing. Aren’t friends supposed to tell each other about these kinds of thing? Like, ‘hey, it’s your turn to do the dishes, and also, I’m a superhero.’” He reaches out to poke at Jeno’s cheek. “It doesn’t have to be a big deal if you don’t make it out to be one.”

“It’s not that—I just,” Jeno sighs. “It’s different with him.”

It’s the same non-answer he’s given Donghyuck time and time again, but it’ll have to do for now.

“Okay,” Donghyuck shrugs. “Your problem, not mine.”

 

 

Jeno had gone to the summer session of the Academy—his parents weren’t willing to let his studies fall behind in favor of a childhood of vigilantism. 

(“We’re still cool parents,” Jeno’s mom says, packing his lunch in spite of the brochure they’d received detailing the extensive options in the dining hall.)

He hadn’t had time to figure out what exactly being bitten by a radioactive spider entailed before he was mingling with kids who grew up getting training in shapeshifting on perfectly manicured lawns and getting tutored in luck manipulation. 

Superheroes aren’t supposed to be manufactured from birth, but with enough money and connections, there’s always a couple who slip under the radar. Super strength is the easiest chemical to inject. There’s always an abundance of those.

(“So, what’s your power?” His counselor says, turning to face him in their awkward circle on the floor. Eighteen pairs of eyes blink back at him as he stutters. He grins feebly. “I, uh. I can shoot webs? Maybe?” )

Powers are supposed to be natural, inborn talents. Programs like the Academy are meant to nurture them, coax them out, and make use of them. 

Powers aren’t supposed to be bought. 

Everyone went through an interview before being admitted. It’s essentially a background check in disguise, with multiple guards wearing vision-enhancing goggles to scan through their bodies in search of performance-enhancing drugs. The rich have been known to try masquerading as heroes since Superman’s time.

But the worst part, by far, is the fact that everyone knew everyone else. Having powers manifest isn’t exactly a common thing, and usually they manage to find their way to specialized schools for this kind of thing. Jeno had grown up in the same small town, at the same small school. He was technically an accident.

(“I don’t belong here,” Jeno whispers to himself on the first night, long after lights out. The kid from Shanghai snores on the bed next to his, feet shifting restlessly in his sleep. 

Jaemin is off at their usual soccer camp, the one they attend every year together. Jeno had begged off by telling Jaemin that he had urgent family business. 

Now though, in this stuffy room where the guy across from him glows in his sleep and the girl next to him levitates in hers, he wishes he was back on the field, kicking a soccer ball at Jaemin’s head. That would be a more satisfying start to summer.

“Can you stop talking?” Shanghai Kid rolls over and shoots Jeno a dirty look. “You’re not the only newbie here. Everyone’s dealing with this stuff. It’s a lot to take in.”

“Sorry,” Jeno mumbles, and turns away.

Silence falls, for a beat. Then Shanghai Kid sighs and taps Jeno. 

“Okay. That came out wrong.” He rubs at his eyes, and Jeno realizes with a start that Shanghai Kid is probably younger than him. “I had a rough flight here and the language hurts my head. But I didn’t mean to get angry at you. I’m Chenle?”

He sticks a hand out, smile wobbly. Jeno looks at him slowly before reaching to shake his hand. “I’m Jeno. Friends?”)

 

 

Jeno oversleeps and barely makes it to class on time, sliding into the seat next to Jaemin with a sleepy hello.

“Tada!” Jaemin points at the newest copy of their university’s newspaper. “It’s my first article as an editor. And I managed to make the front-page too!”

Jeno glances down. _OUR FAVORITE KIND OF SPIDER MAKES A DASHING REAPPEARANCE AT CITY HALL, by Na Jaemin (Assistant Editor of News)._ “Congrats,” he mumbles, managing to smile at Jaemin. “I’m proud of you.”

Jaemin grins back, ready to tell Jeno that he’s getting soft, until someone taps him hesitantly.

“Excuse me, Jaemin?”

Jeno turns to find one of the girls in their year standing in front of them, hands clasped behind her back. She darts a look at Jeno, before returning her focus toward Jaemin.

 _Ah,_ Jeno grimaces. _Another confession._

He looks away. It’s times like these that make him wish he’d gotten invisibility along with the whole spider thing.

Jaemin murmurs an apology, then turns back to face Jeno. “Did you see the shots I got? I was really close to him.”

“Yeah,” Jeno grins, a little too widely. “You really were.”

 

 

Donghyuck opens the door before he gets the chance to reach for his keys. “If I made a bet with someone, would you tell Jaemin?”

“What, no hello?” Jeno steps inside and toes his shoes off. 

“This is important.” 

Donghyuck stares at him, strangely serious, so Jeno pours a glass of water and humors him. “Uh, no, I still wouldn’t. I told you I need time with him.”

“You’ve had time since you were babies,” Donghyuck snorts. “You told me within the first week we lived together.”

“That was because you were snooping in my room!” 

“In my defense, you were clearly up to something.” Donghyuck leans onto the counter. “And you never lock your door anyway.”

“Because usually my roommates have had common sense?”

Donghyuck rolls his eyes. “Back to the bet. What if I already made one?”

Jeno glares. “And why would you do that?”

“It’s Mark, okay?” Donghyuck twists his hands together and sighs. “He thinks you’ll tell Jaemin, and I said you wouldn’t.”

“Oh.” Jeno blinks. “Well, at least you chose the winning side.”

 

 

Just before he heads off to university, he makes a split-second decision to mail off a resume and cover letter to Heroes United. He can’t even call it a resume—it’s one sheet of fancy cream paper with words he cobbled together from lots of Google searches. Miraculously, he makes it to the interview stage, and then the hired stage. 

Most Supers don’t join agencies like HU. Training is required for all just to learn how to keep your powers in check, but joining an actual organization can have dangerous side effects.

Take Jisung, for example.

“Chenle,” Jisung mutters into the receiver when Jeno stops by HQ for his brunch with Doyoung. “No. God. Why would you even think that?”

“What’s Jisung so stressed about?” He whispers to Renjun, who’s throwing grapes up and catching them in his mouth.

“Chenle thinks he can run fast enough to pass through objects, but Jisung doesn’t want him to wind up in pieces.” Renjun leans closer to him. “If you ask me, he totally can. He’s probably already tried it anyway.”

“That’s… concerning.” Jeno cocks his head, considering. “But not unexpected.”

Renjun throws another grape up, but then reaches out to check the time. The grape lands on his forehead with a plonk. “Aren’t you late for your meeting with Doyoung?”

“Chenle,” Jisung says, louder this time. “Fuck, are you ignoring me? For a cute dog?”

Jeno shrugs. “I’d do that too.”

Jisung glares at him poisonously.

“Okay, point taken.” Jeno retreats with his hands out, palms up. “I mean no harm.”

He goes to brunch.

 

 

(“I think the worst part,” Chenle begins slowly, “ about being an actual superhero and not just a Super, is how lonely it’d be.”

They’re sitting outside during one of their rare free periods. The Academy’s on break while the dining hall gets set up, so Jeno leads Chenle out to roll on the grass and look at the clouds.

“I know the policies are more relaxed now,” he says, twirling a flower stem between his fingers, “but back then? When you had to keep your hero life and your alter ego completely separate?” He shudders. “That’d be a nightmare.”

Jeno frowns. “I don’t think it’d be that bad.)

 

 

Doyoung is a nice boss to have, he supposes. He doesn’t know. He’s never had a boss before.

“How have you been?”

Jeno squirms uneasily on his metal chair. This is Doyoung. This is the guy who dragged him out when he fell eighteen stories and landed in the compost bin behind his favorite Chinese takeout place. Also the guy who signs off on his paychecks. It’s chill.

“I’m good,” Jeno says, wincing when it sounds too stiff.

“That’s good.” Doyoung hums, then pours a cup of tea. “I hear from Renjun that you’ve been dealing with the same thief for a while?”

“Oh. You mean Key Guy?” Jeno shrugs. “I don’t think it’s an actual threat. Just someone with too much time on their hands.”

“That’s good, at least.” Doyoung nods and nudges Jeno’s sandwich closer to him. “Also, what’s this about your journalist preferences?”

Jeno groans and mentally deducts twenty dollars from Renjun’s birthday present. It’s his job to tell Doyoung how things are going, Jeno knows that. Nothing is too small of a detail or too unimportant to be looked over. But he couldn’t have let this one thing slide?

“It’s nothing important.” Jeno mutters, “There’s just this one reporter who I’m kind of friendly with.”

Doyoung squints at him. Jeno scrambles to remember whether or not he wore an embarrassing pair of underwear today.

“You like them.”

He chokes. “No,” Jeno gasps, breath coming out unsteady. “It’s not like that.”

“That’s weird though.” Doyoung frowns. “I always thought you liked your friend. Jaemin?”

“Oh my god,” Jeno wheezes. This is not happening to him. Doyoung is like, his _dad._

“Guess I was wrong.” Doyoung shrugs and pours another cup of tea. “Want one?”

 

 

The way it goes in the movies, crushes pop out at you with bright neon letters, screaming _hello! Notice me! I’m here to ruin your life with awkward silences and Taylor Swift songs!_

Jeno’s crush on Jaemin sneaks up on him unawares. There’d been no “Aha!” moment, no sudden realization of “when’d he get so pretty?” or anything like that.

Jeno may have been the older one between the two of them, but Jaemin had always done enough talking for both of them. He’s not shy—he’d just rather spend his time with Jaemin.

And people drift in and out of their lives, taking and giving pieces here and there, but it’s always been the two of them. Two points, one line.

 _I could get used to this,_ Jeno had thought.

 _I already_ am _used to this._ He’d realized.

“Fuck.”

 

 

Jeno wakes up in the middle of the night for no good reason. He pads to the living room, too restless to sleep, and nestles himself into the crook of the cushions. 

**_Jeno_**  
hey

 ** _Jeno_**  
you up?

Donghyuck is a decent roommate. He’s good at cleaning up his stuff, works wonders in the kitchen, keeps the noise level somewhat reasonable. But when he’s too wired to think straight, he turns to Mark.

 ** _Mark_**  
yeah

 ** _Mark_**  
on my way

 

 

“I want to tell him,” he whispers. He’s kept the lights turned off so that he can talk without seeing Mark’s reactions. Confessions are easier that way.

“So tell him,” Mark whispers back. He’d come in his boxers and now cozies into a chair wearing Donghyuck’s sweatpants. They’re a little long for him, but Mark doesn’t seem to mind.

“I can’t.” Jeno frowns. “But I don’t want to keep lying to him. I have so much moral karma built up by now that I’m headed for hell no matter how many cats I rescue from trees.”

Mark giggles and slaps a hand over his mouth. “You’ll be fine. You’re not really lying, just. Omission of truth?”

“That doesn’t make it any better,” Jeno hisses back.

“Why are you so keen on not telling him anyway?” Mark prods carefully, keeping his gaze lowered to the water bottle he cradles in his hands. “Donghyuck never told me.”

“It’s because he’s different,” Jeno starts, then backtracks when Mark responds with silence. “He is, though! I like him, he’s cute and funny and knows how to compensate for my awkwardness. He never expects too much from me.” 

“So what’s the problem?”

“What if he only likes me when I’m wearing the mask?” Jeno blurts out, heart pounding.

“That’s,” Mark pauses. “I just—what even? Listen,” he sighs, “if it weren’t for the fact that Donghyuck’s asleep ten feet away from us right now, I’d be screaming.”

“Hey,” Jeno crosses his arms. “I didn’t ask you to come over to make fun of me.”

Mark rolls his eyes. “No, but you make it really fucking easy to.”

Jeno opens his mouth, ready to at least try to defend himself, but Mark cuts him off before he gets the chance.

“Why would you think that Jaemin only likes you as Spiderman?” Mark’s voice is soft, and Jeno squirms when he feels Mark’s eyes on him.

“He never flirts with me otherwise,” Jeno mutters. “If I told him, he’d stop doing even that. Is it selfish to want to hold onto that?”

“No,” Mark shakes his head. “I don’t think so. But I still think you should let him know, yeah? You never know,” he says, eyes twinkling. “You just might be surprised.”

Mark leaves having stolen Donghyuck’s sweatpants, and Jeno leaves even more buzzed than before.

It’s a long night.

 

 

“New alert,” Renjun says to him after he groggily reaches for his cell phone and accidentally hits “answer call” instead of “decline.”

“So?” He mumbles. He turns over to go back to sleep.

“Key Guy is back, and this time he’s heading toward HQ. So we could use some backup?”

Jeno groans and mutters, “I’ll be there,” before hanging up. Key Guy’s like, a D-list villain at best. His Saturday morning is being interrupted so he can protect HQ from a D-list villain. He’s truly hit rock-bottom.

“You’re so rude,” he hisses at Key Guy when he finally reaches them. “I could’ve been sleeping right now. And you had to drag me out for this?” Jeno waves an affronted hand at the scene in front of him. “You don’t even have a key! There’s no ceremony today!”

Key Guy shrugs. “There’s only so many ways you can steal a key before it starts to get boring.”

“I don’t care,” Jeno retorts. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“This,” Key Guy smirks, before snapping his fingers. On cue, three doves burst into the air.

“What the fuck,” Jeno manages.

“Kim Doyoung,” Key Guy booms. “You haven’t been home in three days. The cat misses you. I miss you. Please, come back.”

A mariachi band plays in the distance. Renjun’s staring at him from a third-floor window, mouthing _What the fuck?_

 _No idea,_ Jeno shrugs back.

“You’re so dumb.” Doyoung yells, now standing next to Renjun. “You didn’t need to rob keys every time you wanted my attention, Taeil. This is too much.”

Jeno frowns. Where has he heard that name? 

_Doyoung’s husband,_ Renjun mouths at him, and yeah, that makes sense.

 

 

“Woah. You okay?”

Jeno opens the apartment door rubbing at his eyes blearily. “Long day at work. Like, really long day.”

Donghyuck frowns. “It’s seven in the morning.”

“Long. Day.” Jeno topples onto the couch and passes out in twenty seconds flat.

 

 

(His very first assignment at HU was a team mission. He went with Chenle, the two of them heavily decked out while their official costume designs were still being worked out. He’d had black hair then, not that it mattered when he was wearing his mask.

Renjun and Jisung had squabbled back and forth in his ear. Chenle had accidentally run too far and wound up on the other side of the city. Jeno mistook a bank official for a thief and hung him from the ceiling for ten minutes before realizing his mistake.

All in all, not the greatest first impression.

Jaemin had waited patiently outside of the bank, still a newbie at the paper and thus relegated to the labor-intensive fieldwork that no one wanted to do.

“Spiderman!” He’d called, smile bright and toothy beneath his cap. He’d kept a pen tucked behind his ear, because that’s “what all professional journalists do.” “What made you decide to devote your life to fighting crime?”

And Jeno had smiled, wiped his tears, and answered the question.)

 

 

Their city is somewhat on the safer side of things. They don’t deal with infamous supervillains every other day, but it’s not like nothing happens either. Jeno celebrates his last midterm by throwing on the only suit he can find—one buried at the bottom of his laundry basket—and rushing to quell a rising fire.

HU is the only agency in their city, which means that the job pays decently well, but it also means that they deal with _everything_ that the city could possibly have issues with. Fire falls outside of their standard protocol, but the city’s fire department isn’t enough for this one apparently.

Their only water-powered Super, Junmyeon, looks exhausted, hair matted and face full of soot. “Hey,” he manages to say, before turning back and blasting another column of water.

Jeno’s job is relatively simple: go in and get whoever you find out. Height’s his best advantage in most cases, but when the heat rises upwards and the smoke curls into his eyes, Jeno finds himself hacking uncontrollably when he goes home that night.

He slumps against the door, too tired to muster enough energy to knock. “Help,” he mumbles, throat parched.

“Spiderman?”

Even in his dazed stupor, Jeno would recognize that voice. “Hi,” he says quietly. 

Jaemin steps out in an oversized hoodie and lingering bedhead, blinking at Jeno slowly. “What are you doing here?”

“I, um.” Jeno picks at his sleeves, conscious that his costume is in tatters. “I got lost.”

“Well.” Jaemin scrutinizes him and frowns. “You’re lucky that you found your way here.”

“Yeah,” Jeno laughs, only it quickly dissolves into a coughing fit.

Jaemin returns from the bathroom with a first aid kit, and peels off his costume slowly to apply burn cream.

Jeno protests, albeit weakly, but Jaemin hushes him.

“I’ll leave your mask on,” he says, hands gentle as he rubs the cream in.

He doesn’t know how long they stay like that—Jeno, propped up against Jaemin’s couch, extending his arms out languidly, and Jaemin, crouched by his side. He falls asleep eventually, only waking when Jaemin makes to leave.

“I’m sorry, I’ll leave,” Jeno mutters, hand on the doorknob.

“You’re too weak to go like this,” Jaemin argues, but Jeno’s already got one foot out the door.

“Hey,” Jaemin calls after him. “Be careful, Spiderman. You’re more vulnerable than you think.”

Jeno lifts a hand in sleepy parting, and goes.

 

 

 ** _Jaemin_**  
if you’re gonna keep getting hurt like this

 ** _Jaemin_**  
you should tell me

 

 

The first words that came out of Jeno’s mouth upon opening his texts: “He knows.”

“Oh my god. Hyuck!” His heartbeat is increasing, rapidly. “He knows, what the fuck? Since when? For how long? Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Woah.” Donghyuck frowns. “Slow down. Start from the beginning?”

“I got injured, I went to Jaemin’s place instead of ours, he was very nice to me, I left, then he dropped the bomb that he knew who I was this whole time.” Jeno clutches at his forehead. “I think the room is spinning.”

“Wow,” Donghyuck whistles. “Does this mean I won the bet?”

 

 

Despite Jaemin’s best efforts, Jeno goes off the grid for the next week. He spends most of his time at HQ now, doing his homework while listening to Chenle and Jisung fight over which Girls’ Generation song reigns supreme.

(Personally, he agrees with Chenle—Into the New World is legendary.)

Doyoung has to kick him out at night, shooing him out the door with threats of reinstating Taeil’s role as Key Guy.

“Go home, Jeno.” He’d said, locking the doors behind him. “You can’t stay here all night.”

So Jeno trudges home, except, when he tries his key, the door stays stubbornly locked.

“What the hell?” He kicks at the door. He just wants to go home and sleep and forget. It isn’t until the door opens that he realizes his apartment is never this quiet, and it certainly isn’t on the left side of the hall. Fuck.

Jaemin greets him at the door, cheek crinkled from where he’d been lying on his pillow. Oh no. Jeno wants to squish it.

“Sorry,” he stutters, and retreats.

Not quickly enough though. Jaemin’s hand darts out and grabs hold of his sleeve. “Stay? Please?”

They huddle together on the floor again. Jaemin’s clutching a couch cushion to his chest, cheek smooshed as he leans sideways. Jeno blinks and does his best to look away.

He clears his throat. “I feel like I should start.” When Jaemin doesn’t say or do anything otherwise, he takes that as his cue to keep going. “H-how long have you known?”

Jaemin sucks in a breath. “I think I always suspected? But it didn’t really… I didn’t get confirmation until you signed up for Heroes United.”

“That long?” Jeno stares, mouth open.

Jaemin smiles wryly. “You’re not exactly a good liar.”

“But,” Jeno frowns, “You’ve known for so long… you knew it was me? Every time you interviewed me?”

“Well,” Jaemin shrugs. “Yeah.” He must sense some of Jeno’s panic, because he goes on to hurriedly add, “I didn’t tell anyone else, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I don’t care about that,” Jeno manages to say. “It’s just. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Jaemin pauses, and the silence stretches on. He opens his mouth, then closes it. “I was waiting for you,” he says finally. “There had to be a reason that you weren’t telling me, right? So I told myself to wait.”

“Oh.” Jeno slumps, the fight gone out of him. That makes sense.

“So,” Jaemin ventures, voice wavering slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me? Did you not… trust me?”

“No!” Jeno yelps, before lowering his voice when the neighbor bangs on the wall in response. “No,” he whispers, “it’s nothing like that.”

“Then what is it?”

“I um.” Jeno swallows, hard. “I…like you? I thought you were only flirting with me because I was famous? So I wanted you to keep flirting with me?” His voice comes out squeaky, ears tipped red and cheeks hot.

Now it’s Jaemin’s turn to stare at him slack-jawed.

“What the hell.” Jaemin narrows his eyes at him. “What the actual, fucking hell. That was why? That was your reason?” He jabs a finger at Jeno’s chest. “All these years, I thought it was because I wasn’t being a good enough friend to you, and that you thought I wasn’t worth the risk, and then you come out with something like this?”

“Um,” Jeno stutters. Jaemin looks kind of mad right now. Actually, he looks very mad. Jeno’s confession still hangs in the air, unanswered. “Yes?”

“Lee Jeno,” Jaemin pinches the bridge of his nose. “I like you too. I flirt with you while you’re Spiderman because you’re always more confident then.” He opens his eyes and stares at Jeno. “Now do you get it?”

“Oh,” Jeno manages, breath coming out shaky. “Yeah, I think I do.”

“Good,” Jaemin murmurs, leaning forward.

It’s quick and light—the briefest touch of lips, before Jeno breaks away to giggle.

“I’m sorry,” he says, still laughing. “I just. This doesn’t feel real? I still can’t believe it.”

Jaemin rolls his eyes, but it’s soft, fond. “You’re such a dork.”

Jeno can feel Jaemin exhale with each word he says, mouth curving delicately upward. He traces Jaemin’s smile with his mouth, nose bumping awkwardly against his cheek.

“We’re so bad at this,” Jaemin whispers, but his eyes are light, and Jeno’s happy.

“It’s okay,” Jeno murmurs. “We have time.”

And he leans in to kiss him again.

 

 

(“Things have been surprisingly quiet after Key Guy disappeared,” Chenle remarks from where they’re sitting around the break table. He slams his hands on the table and hisses. “Too quiet.”

Renjun rolls his eyes. “That was Doyoung’s husband.”

“He has a weird type.” Jisung wrinkles his nose.

“Jeno,” Chenle says, waving at him. “Are you there?”

“He’s texting Jaemin.” Renjun groans. “Can you not? This is bad for my health.”

 ** _Jaemin_**  
go save the world!!

 ** _Jaemin_**  
i’ll be there taking awesome photos i promise

 ** _Jaemin_**  
stay safe

 ** _Jaemin_**  
(´∀｀)♡

“He’s meditating,” Jisung drawls, chin in hand as Jeno chokes and blushes.

“He’s died,” Chenle concludes solemnly.)

**Author's Note:**

> find me elsewhere: [cc](https://curiouscat.me/elsewhere) \+ [twt](https://twitter.com/mythsick) \+ [listo](http://listography.com/spearmint)


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